"It drove me insane," Aston told CNN. "It was like I was skiing
along a huge row of fish and chips shops, the whole day."

Aston, a seasoned explorer making her first solo expedition, said
that the only thing that truly frightened her —
beyond hurricane-speed winds, temperatures
below -40° C, exhaustion, malnutrition,
frostbite, cramps, sunburn and hypothermia — was being
completely alone.

"If you're alone, you have to make sure that if something goes
wrong, you can get out of it," she told CNN. "I had to always
make sure that I would be able to put up a tent and look after
myself at the end of each day."

After 59 days of survival and solitude, she became the first
woman the ski solo across the highest, driest, windiest,
emptiest and
coldest place on earth.